The Waiting Room is an interactive immersive cinema experience about what it means to wait.
Premiered as part of ACMI Lab in April 2022, this is a collaboration with visual artist Martine Corompt.
The event is made up of four Acts, or stages of waiting, titled Distraction, Disruption, Compliance, and Reward. Each of these acts is hosted by a ‘preacher’ in the tradition of the great evangelists, who guides and energise the audience throughout the events. The preacher played by Todd Levi is part snake oil salesman, evangelical zealot and dishevelled madman and at each stage, the audience is unsure of which version they are going to get.
The performance culminates in an archetypal cinematic event –an experimental live rendition of the THX surround sound intro sequence – a motif usually heralding the beginning of the main event, but with The Waiting Room it signals the end. This sequence, is performed on tuning rods by the Overtones ensemble, amplified in immersive surround sound and accompanied by the audience mobile phone orchestra